Monday, November 12, 2018

US Wants India To Step Up Multilateral Military Ties In Indo-Pacific

US Wants India To Step Up Multilateral Military Ties In Indo-Pacific

“India is a top priority for US, a major defence partner. We are for multi-lateralism. The more India is in that, the better," a top US defence official said. "The US is encouraging India to incorporate Australia and Japan more in its military engagements,” he added. India remains reluctant to include Australia in the top-notch Malabar naval exercise it conducts with the US and Japan

HONOLULU (HAWAII): The US wants India to step up its multilateral military engagements in the Indo-Pacific region, even as it has offered bilateral combat exercises to help “integrate” its M-777 ultra-light howitzers, Apache attack and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters into the Indian armed forces.

India of course is steadily cranking up the scope and complexity of the several bilateral military exercises it holds with US every year, with the two also deciding to hold their first mega tri-Service amphibious war games in the Bay of Bengal next year.

But India remains reluctant to include Australia in the top-notch Malabar naval exercise it conducts with the US and Japan, while also being firmly opposed to any talk of militarisation of the fast-developing “Quad” among these four countries.

“India is a top priority for US, a major defence partner. We are for multi-lateralism. The more India is in that, the better. The US is encouraging India to incorporate Australia and Japan more in its military engagements,” said a top US defence official at the Indo-Pacific Command here.

The US move to rename its Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command, one of its military theatre commands spread around the globe, is to reflect the expanding connectivity between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. With India’s increasing military relevance for US as a hedge against China, Washington also believes the converging bilateral security interests will result in a more secure Indo-Pacific.

Senior US officials contend China is trying to “subvert” the “free, open and rules-based order” in the region with its aggressive and expansionist behaviour, backed by its “opaque” multi billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative that can lead to “debt entrapment” like in the case of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka.

Though India does not want to needlessly antagonise China with a multilateral military construct in Indo-Pacific, it’s certainly upgrading its military ties with Australia and Japan as well as Asean countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

India, for instance, dispatched four Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, a C-17 Globemaster-III and C-130J “Super Hercules” aircraft, along with 145 personnel, to take part in the multilateral “Pitch Black” exercise in Australia in July-August. Also, India and Japan are currently holding their first joint land military exercise “Dharma Guardian” at the Counter-Insurgency Warfare School at Vairengte (Mizoram).

The exercises with US are in a different league altogether, with the two countries also inking bilateral military pacts like the Communications, Compatibility and Security Arrangement (COMCASA) and Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

After the Malabar exercise off Guam in June and “Yudh Abhyas” at Chaubatia (Uttarakhand) in September, Indian and American Special Forces are set to hold “Vajra Prahar” combat drills at the Mahajan field firing ranges from November 19 to December 2.

The US, of course, has bagged lucrative Indian defence deals worth $17 billion since 2007, with several more in the pipeline. The Indian Army just last week inducted the first lot of 145 M-777 howitzers (Rs 5,000 crore) ordered from the US in November 2016, while IAF will get 22 Apache gunships (Rs 13,952 crore) and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters (Rs 8,048 crore) in the 2019-2020 time frame. “We can build such systems into our exercise settings…Interoperability is the main aim,” said a US defence official.